Of Small Boxes and the End of All Things
by ThatBigBlueBox
Summary: It was those eyes that made her worry. Those sad, green eyes that didn't seem to care about Time Lords, or laws of time, or anything of the sort. But she would never understand until the moment of her death.


The Doctor and Romana were having an off day in the TARDIS. It had been several weeks since Ribos, and getting the first part to time's key. They had yet to locate another one, and the Doctor had decided to take them somewhere new.

Of course, he never could fly the TARDIS properly.

They'd landed on Earth, in a small village called Leadworth. It was the early 21st century, and as Romana was quick to point out, the information was all on the scanner. He didn't need to make a fool out of himself in front of the locals to find out.

Despite her protests to go to a more interesting planet than the primitive level three water planet (by Rassilon, had they really only discovered aliens?), the Doctor made them go.

"Honestly, Doctor, I don't know why you fancy this place so much," Romana said, rolling her eyes at the little houses and shops. "Perhaps their being so dull to the universe around them makes you feel smarter? No fancy Academy terms needed for that, that's simply boosting your own ego."

"I'll have you know that I am very intelligent, and I don't need humans to prove it."

"Really? Then, tell me Doctor," Romana said as they walked past a little boy running and waving a toy airplane around. "How can you create a six-dimensional spectra powered time loop stabilizer using your TARDIS as a feedback line?"

The Doctor stared at Romana blankly. "Well, I can't pay attention in every class, can I?" he exclaimed, irritated at the smug smile on the Time Lady's face and promising to himself that he would find out. "At least I've got my own TARDIS. I'll bet you haven't even got one yet, have you?"

"Once we fulfill our quest to find the Key to Time, the High Council are granting me a position amongst their ranks and a Type 257," she said, excitement lingering in her eyes. "Much better than that junky old Type 40 with a stuck chameleon circuit. I've heard the 257s never end up in the wrong place-"

Romana was cut off by the Doctor. "If you wish to fuel your own ego, you can go back to my TARDIS and find a mirror."

"Are you expressing the fact that my looks are pleasing to the eye, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked up in shock, trying to come up with a viable response, but ended up just blundering silently. He began to sulk.

"That's fine if you think that," she said with a smirk. "But if you think I would ever Bond with an old geezer like you-"

"That is not at all what I was suggesting!" he snapped.

There was silence between them for a few minutes, the Doctor fuming silently at the arrogance of his assistant (though he would never admit it, he believed it almost matched his own) while Romana was observing the new world around her.

"Doctor," she spoke.

"Yes, what is it, Romana?" he asked a bit snippily.

"Now, I'm not an expert, but is it a custom of this planet to have small black cubes sitting on the ground?" she inquired, bending over to pick one up. She examined it closely, and picked another one at random.

"Curious. They're all the exact same," she said. "No differences whatsoever. So is it a custom, then?"

"No idea. Why don't we ask that kind fellow up there. Excuse me, sir!" he exclaimed to the man sitting up on the playground to their left. His back was towards them, and he was wearing a tweed coat and had lots of black hair.

The man turned around in apparent irritation, before that emotion turned to shock. He wore a bow tie and bracers, and though he dressed like an old professor, his face was young, in his mid-twenties.

"I'm a foreigner, and I was wondering if you might help me out," the Doctor said. He held up a cube. "My assistant and I were simply wondering whether this was a tradition of your country. To have scattered black cubes everywhere, on the streets, on the housetops."

"No," the man said flatly. He turned around and squatted next to the cube he'd been studying before. The Doctor approached him slowly, motioning for Romana to stay back.

"Excuse me, sir, but what's your name? I'm the Doctor," he said, grinning widely. The man stood up and faced the Doctor, almost nose-to-nose.

"I do wonder what I was thinking, choosing that scarf. Ah, well, I have had worse. You will have worse."

"Excuse me, sir, I don't quite understand what you mean."

The man laughed sharply. "Ah, no, you wouldn't. But I'm guessing your friend over there," he shouted. "Has already worked it out."

"Oh, she's not my friend. Merely an assistant," the Doctor pointed out, only to be ignored by the strange man. The man slid down the slide and approached Romana with a goofy grin.

"You always did show me up," he said.

Her eyebrows were crinkled in delicate confusion. "I haven't the slightest clue what you mean," she said, taken aback by this bold stranger.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Romana, you're smarter than this!" he complained. "Fresh graduate from the Academy. If I remember correctly, you were top of your class, but, hey, maybe I'm wrong. Dusty old head of mine, bound to get something wrong sometime. Don't tell anyone, but I only scraped by with 51% on my final exams." He gave a wink as his voice dropped to a whisper. Realization dawned on the Time Lady's face.

"You're the Doctor," she breathed. "Which body are you on?"

"Well, technically?" At her severe glance he winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, fine. Let's see... there's that one I don't count, oh, and my last self was rather arrogant and decided to waste a regeneration making a biological metacrisis for a former companion, so this would be the 13th. Time's up, Romanadvoratrelundar." He gave a sad smile.

Her mouth fell open. "Oh, my..." she said, trailing off. "Well, I do give you the best of luck, but we simply must be off. I don't want you getting in trouble with the Time Lords for crossing your own time stream."

The bow tie clad Doctor's smile faded slightly. "Right, of course. Time Lords, and wibbly stuff," he said, and looked away for a second, blinking rapidly. He pulled his head back up. "Do I see you caring about my well being, Fred?"

She gave a short chuckle. "Don't be fooled, Doctor, as much more educated as I am than you, I don't want you hurt. Do you understand?" she asked sternly. "And you'd do well to tell the future me the same."

The Doctor stared at her with lingering eyes. "Goodbye, Romana. Go back to the TARDIS with your Doctor. Have fun piecing together the Key to Time," he said, turning around and heading back to the play set.

Romana's Doctor returned to her, looking only slightly perturbed.

"What an odd fellow," the Doctor mused. "I do look forward to being him."

"Did you see his eyes?" Romana asked worriedly. "They looked old, like he's seen too much. I've seen Time Lords over 12,000 with younger eyes. Something's happened to him."

"Ah, well, no matter," the Doctor said dismissively. "I'll see what it is when the time comes. Jelly baby, Romana?"

Romana suppressed a grimace at how lightly he was taking this. "No, thank you," she snapped irately. "But he didn't even seem concerned when I mentioned the Time Lords knowing his crossing over his own time stream."

"Let it go, Romana!" the Doctor exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "Best to live in the present! Any more leads to the next piece to the Key to Time?"

As Romana checked the scanner, she couldn't get the strange Doctor out of her mind. The odd, dwelling sadness in his eyes, the way he just didn't care if the Time Lords caught him... Nothing fit, and that frustrated her. Only centuries later, in her third form, would she finally understand.

~329 years later, the Battle of Arcadia ~

Former Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar sat at her desk wearily, rubbing her hands through her once again black, curly hair. It reminded her all too much of when everything was so simple. Just she and the Doctor, trying to locate the Key to time, barely tolerating each other. She'd been a fresh graduate from the Academy. Before the Time War, before the universe all went to hell.

A holographic comms system patched through her earpiece onto the floor in front of her, making her jump. An old man with weary, sad eyes stood before her.

"Who are you and how did you patch this comms? It's private," she snapped weakly, trying to find the strength to care anymore.

"Romanadvoratrelundar," the man began. "It has been so long. You should know who I am. First in your class at that Academy, wasn't it? Not me, only scraped by with a 51%. And for anyone who's listening in on this, the tests are rigged." Romana almost smiled at his joke, realizing who he was.

"Doctor," she said, a small smile finally gracing her lips.

Any trace of humour vanished from the man's face almost immediately. "Don't call me that," he said. "I am not the Doctor anymore. The blood of too many innocents are and will be on my hands for that."

"Then what shall I call you, Fred?" Romana snapped. "This is war. There are going to be casualties. Just because you killed a few people doesn't mean you're not a Doctor anymore!"

His expression grew severe. "Is that really how you see things?" he asked bitterly. "No matter. It all ends tonight."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"With this." The box that the Time Lord pulled into view made Romana recoil in horror.

"You can't, Doctor!" she exclaimed incredulously. "You'll burn the whole of Gallifrey!"

"And I with it."

"Are you mad? You can't possibly think about going through with this," she said. "We can kill the Daleks some other way! Not by burning our home!"

"It isn't just the Daleks I'm concerned about," he said. "What news have you heard from the High Council?"

"Since they fired me at the beginning of this terrible war, nothing," Romana said, rather bitterly. "Don't tell me they favour you."

"They've brought Rassilon back. They intend on destroying the universe," he said. "I have made my decision. I must stop them."

Romana felt her resolve weakening. If the whole universe was at stake...

"Do what you have to do, Theta," she said, leaning back in her chair and clicking off the message.

In that moment, just before the weapon went off, Romana remembered the future Doctor, so long ago, in the tiny village of Leadworth. The sadness in his eyes, the way he didn't care about the Time Lords. He didn't have to. There were none left.

In her last moment, Romana finally understood.


End file.
